Psychiatric hospitals have always been branded as scary. There is always at least one haunted house every Halloween that is hospital-themed. It’s a very popular topic when it comes to scaring your friendly neighbor.
The history behind old psychiatric hospitals is an interesting topic. Not many people know that psychiatric hospitals back in the day were not as regulated or medically helpful as they are now.
Weird History shared a video on its YouTube channel about what it was like being a mental patient back in the 1900s. I will say that some of the details are a little disturbing.
Weird History starts the video by stating that patients were involuntarily sent to the hospitals. Most patients up to the 1960s in US mental health facilities were admitted involuntarily.
Many families would admit their family members just because they didn’t want to take care of them. One man sent his wife because she followed a different religion than he did. Another man and his wife sent their child because they claimed he was uncontrollable.
On top of being sent there against their will, patients at the hospitals were treated like prisoners. Each door was locked separately, and each window was heavily barred.
The doctors did not make the patients' situations any better. They would pull patients' hair and intentionally infect them with malaria as treatment. Other forms of treatment used were just as bad. Doctors would use a wheel to spin patients at a high speed, harness them and swing them, and brand them with a hot iron.
When the 1930s rolled around, doctors started using shock therapy and performing lobotomies on patients. Some patients realized that the only way to get out of the hospital was to fake it. Hiding their condition and doing everything the doctor said was their ticket to freedom.
Not everything about psychiatric hospitals was horrible. Doctors also felt that rest and recuperation would help patients with their mental illnesses. Most hospitals had beautiful landscaping so patients could go on walks outside. A lot of hospitals were visited by tourists because of the beautiful architecture of the buildings and the breathtaking landscape.
To find out more about mental hospitals in the 1900s, click the video!
